1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a receptacle connector, and particularly to an RJ-45 receptacle connector that can prevent terminal thereof from being damaged even when mismating with an RJ-11 plug connector.
2. Description of Related Art
A modular jack assembly, known as an RJ-45 connector assembly or an RJ-11 connector assembly, comprises a plug connector and a mating receptacle connector. An RJ-45 connector assembly used for a network communication has dimensions larger than those of an RJ-11 connector assembly which is used for a telephone. Therefore, an RJ-11 plug connector may be mistakenly inserted into an RJ-45 receptacle connector, which may result in damage to the terminals of the RJ-45 receptacle connector.
Hence, an improved RJ-45 receptacle connector is required to deal with mismating with a non-complementary RJ-11 plug connector. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,257,935, 6,319,070 and 6,312,293 all having the same assignee with the invention, disclose some approaches to achieve this object. Anyhow, all of them require to use additional separate parts attached to the housing, thus taking labor and time. The invention discloses a simple and easy-to-make connector in comparison with the arts.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide an RJ-45 receptacle connector that can prevent terminal thereof from being damaged even when mismating with an RJ-11 plug connector.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an RJ-45 receptacle connector that can prevent terminals from being deflected unduly.
In order to achieve the objects set forth, an RJ-45 receptacle connector in accordance with the present invention comprises a housing defining a receiving space for receiving a complementary RJ-45 plug connector and a terminal module assembled in the receiving space. The terminal module comprises a dielectric base and a plurality of terminals assembled on the dielectric base. The dielectric base comprises a plurality of upwardly extending front-to-back ribs. Every two adjacent ribs define a receiving groove and each rib forms an inclined supporting face. Each of the terminals comprises a spring contacting portion in alignment with a corresponding rib. The complementary plug connector comprises a plurality of separating walls and a plurality of contacts assembled between the separating walls for connecting with the terminals. When mating, front ends of the separating walls of the complementary plug connector are received in corresponding receiving grooves of the RJ-45 receptacle connector. The spring contacting portion is deflected downwardly by a corresponding contact and supported by the inclined supporting face. When a noncomplementary plug connector is inserted into the receptacle connector, the ribs would prevent the plug connector from further insertion because the number of its separating walls is not equal to that of the receiving grooves and.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.